Mark Aksel's page

Yeah, I've played that same Sorc before - maxing out the favored class, bouncing and persistence spell... It was really boring for the party to just be like "make a DC25+ will save... and reroll if you pass"... ok, fight over, we win.

So, my DM hates blood rager right now.

We were screwing around with them, cross blood lines, etc.. and it's pretty much just a much better barbarian.

As not to have any spoilers, leaving out any part of the story.

My goblin has the opportunity to become a vampire. Needs to give up 5 feats to do it, and level 13 currently.

We're trying to home brew the way this campaign is designed, and will tweak as needed.

DM is allowing me to change class as needed to suit the goal I'm trying to make.

Basically, I want my goblin vampire (currently rogue), to jump on people, crawl all over them, biting and clawing (natural weapons), and pretty much just viciously mauling them.

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this sort of build, as it is VERY out of my norm.

Any ideas? Recommendations? Currently level 13, with fantastic stats (as Vampire template gives) - shouldn't have an issue qualifying for any feats... Remember, which is -5.

Here is the vampire template.

Ability Scores: Str +6, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4. As an undead creature, a vampire has no Constitution score.

Skills: Vampires gain a +8 racial bonus on Bluff, Perception, Sense Motive, and Stealth checks.

Feats: Vampires gain Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, and Toughness as bonus feats.

So...

What are some builds people are making? I'm a min/maxer by design, but I wanted to see what I could do with this guy.

Level 12, I'm showing as roughly 6D6+11 damage (prior to items).

Any gimicks people are using? This guy isn't coming anywhere close to my ranger I've made...

How is the use of weapons effecting earthadontist (or whatever the earth kineticist is called). Is having a unholy weapon going to add damage to the good aligned target, etc?

Curious to see if someone was able to "break" this class or not.

Looking at trying this guy out in a on-going campaign, wanted to be able to explain the min/max, anything over powered, etc to the group before I even brought him up.

Thanks!

“You shall be my angel slayer.” Adrastus Thorn spends exhausting amounts of time teach-ing you about good celestial, their strengths and weaknesses.

I'm hyper-focused on this trait. Initially the back story of my character was the angels (or so he thinks) slayed his entire village. It wasn't angels but the attackers did have some paladins, that were retaliating to his tribes constant nuisance to the areas surrounding the kingdom.

We're a very loose-form group, and are just getting back into the swing of things after a 6-month break. We're all given the opportunity to change classes around, and we have 2 new faces so we can fit in with the party dynamic.

I'm trying to be the 'bestest' angel slayer I can be! I've chosen Ranger with Divine Tracker and Infiltrator, all focused on Good/Lawful outsiders.

What talents, feats, etc can I focus on to be hyper focused at killing good outsiders?

Any ideas are greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Can someone please explain to me exactly what it means, and how it works?

It says "must give up 5 feats", is this meaning we have to give up the feat each time we get one in order to progress the path presented in the book to becoming a true vampire?

If that is the case, due to our level and select classes, if it's 1:1 (for gained feats only), I'll never be able to get to 'true vampire'.

Any guidance would be appreciated!

I'm a fey sorcerer, focused on screwing with people's minds (no fireballs etc).

It's not broken, you broke it.

That's what happens when you try to "fix" something that's just fine.

Thanks for the thoughtful and insightful post... Really added quite a bit to the discussion.

The issue is simple. I've never played in a vacuum, with the same people, with the same encounter - twice.

Math is only as good as good as statistical analysis allows.

By allowing haste, you provide a 100% increase from the base attack to most melee characters. Yes, you can then counter that with "well a good DM will...." Which is then countered by "But then good players will...". What are the mathematics behind that? I would love to see the equation you use to determine the human factor.

Basing decisions PURELY off infinite dice rolls, is an extremely poor way to do it - they are just WAY too many variable - along with the potential for HUGE outliers to screw the numbers drastically from game to game, even session to session.

I'm still a firm believer it is over powered, as many of you here. Nearly every single argument is based on something ELSE is wrong. The common denominator between haste and 'something else' seems to always have haste being considered. It's broken, I fixed it.

My party I believe is agreeing that it is a single target spell, and as a level 6 spell he can take a group haste.

So, after reading all the posts - I'm not going to respond individually.

Here is my take on the 'sides'.

First, some people say there are counters (someone references windwall against hasted Archers). That's fine, but if you have to design an encounter specifically around preventing archers from getting too much of a benefit to haste - then I classify that is broken.

Second, "DM should be smarter and move characters". That's fine, in a vacuum. When rooms are only so big, and characters are competent, they're not just going to simply let you move away without paying for it. Not only does the DM now have to change the boss encounter to try to get away from the spell, he allows multiple opportunity attacks. Having to change the design for an encounter to deal with a spell? Then I also classify that as broken.

In all, I don't think it is JUST the extra attack that really makes it strong. It's the extra attack, AC, Attack Bonus *and* movement. Not to mention the player extends the duration to double his casting level.

As for some of you people arguing about taking more time... seriously? What is your deal? You're playing an RPG, if you're having issues with wasting time you might want to look into something else. We also all use herolab + ipads, so adding our buffs to our characters and making attacks is extremely fast.

Just to be sure, you are aware it is only an extra attack on a full attack action. No extra spells, no extra attack if you move etc....

I ask because I have never heard of Haste being called broken...it makes me wonder.

As to how to fix it, high AC, mirror image, slow spell, invisibility, and any of a hundred other things can really slow down extra attacks. He'll even just moving will do it sometimes.

Generally it is making the boss encounters way, way too simple. It is a group of 5 (instead of 4), so I usually max out the encounters HP. When you have a pally with smite evil, a 2h fighter, a negative energy cleric, a archer inquisitor and a arcane archer - extended haste hurts a ton.

Even when they screw up and fight everything at once (13 bobos, and the boss) they still blow through it without even needing a heal. Pally running in with 3 attacks, cleave. Archers just targeting different things... stuff falls - and it falls quickly.

Put bluntly, if Haste is ruining all your encounters, your encounters need to be better designed.

There are some spells the game assumes you should have by a certain level. Fly is one. Haste is another.

It's a good spell. It's not gamebreaking.

I'll let Paizo know you think their encounters are not up to par.

So, our group has a Haste caster... no one realized it was Creature/Level... Everyone thought it was 1 person.

After reading, we find it is for basically the entire group (he's level 6, with 5 party members).

I've found that it is just completely ruining the campaign, making boss fights incredibly (and I mean INCREDIBLY) easy.

Is anyone nerfing this? Looking to see other DM house rules, etc.

I went through the book, and did the following... My party only missed a few things. So this isn't entirely complete (they did nothing in the Sanatorium). (Excuse the formatting, as it was pasted from excel)

ITEM COST TOTAL
Masterwork Ranseur 310 310
(8) Potion of CLW 50 400
(12) Potion of CMW 300 3600
Potion of Gaseous Form 750 750
(2) Ring of Protection +1 2000 4000
Masterwork Thieves Tools 100 100
Masterwork Flute 100 100
(2) Cloak of Resistance +1 1000 2000
(2) Masterwork Pair of Manacles 50 100
Sihedron Medallion 3500 3500
Ring of Force Shield (Sihedron Rune) 8500 8500
Jade Amulet of Natural Armor +1 2000 2000
Longsword +1 2315 2315
Leather Armor +1 1160 1160
Bastard Sword +1 2335 2335
Iesha’s Scarf (100gp) 100 100
Adamantine Longsword 3015 3015
Hat of Disguise 1800 1800
Ring of Jumping 2500 2500
Chime of Opening (5) 3000 3000
Various Books 300 300
Scroll of Burning Hands 25 25
Scroll of Flaming Sphere 150 150
Scroll of Comprehend Languages 25 25
Scroll of Minor Image 150 150
Scroll of See Invisibility 150 150
Scroll of Sleep 25 25
Scroll of Whispering Wind 150 150
Scroll of Lightning Bolt 375 375
Scroll of Keen Edge 375 375
Wand of Shocking Grasp (28) 750 420
Wand of Produce Flame (34) 750 510
Wand of Tree Shape (4) 750 60
Wand of Shield (9) 750 135
Wand of Silent Image (5) 750 75
Wand of Magic Missile (38) 750 570
Wand of Gentle Repose (17) 4500 1530
Wand of False Life (29) 4500 2610
Wand of Identify (15) 750 225
Masterwork Dog Slicer 308 308
Masterwork Scimitar 315 315
(4)Ever Burning Torch 110 440
Hide Armor +1 1165 1165
Masterwork Shortbow 330 330
Hungry Decapitant 500 500
Reward Bandit 500 500
Heavy Pick +1 2308 2308
Longsword +1 2315 2315
Masterwork Handaxe 306 306
Silver Dagger 322 322
Cold Iron Returning Dagger 10304 10304
Masterwork Breastplate 350 350
Shortsword +1 2310 2310
Masterwork Comp Bow +4 800 800
Banded Mail +1 1400 1400
Breastplate +1 1350 1350
Stalker's Mask 3500 3500
War Razor +1 2308 2308
TOTAL 80576

Gold (Total Cash of actual gold, and small trinkets etc) 12531

Heofthehills - thanks a lot for that! extremely helpful!!!

Does one of your party members have the trait that allows to sell items for 60% instead of 50%?

In your eyes, if you give a +1 (whatever) to the group, so you give them that value as their total gold, or just the sell price? I can make arguments for either.

Ok, revising my previous statement a bit. Have them start with 75% of the average wealth of the remaining characters. Spaced the part about you giving them 25% more gold.

I would need to figure that out - but it will be quite high. I know they currently have about 15k in gold between the 3 of them.

The warrior is wearing roughly 16165 worth of gear. Thats already 30k, plus another ~10k for the other items. Means I'm starting them off with 10k gold. Bringing another 20k into the party.

And dead bodies float. If the group wants to try and find the corpse of their buddy? Let them. They might even find something.

It was a 300' drop below into what I would consider somewhat a rough sea and impossible to land coastline (pure cliffs). I don't think getting the body will be an option.

Also another quick question - does anyone know of a breakdown of items/gold received for each section? I would like to know the exact number just so I can keep track. I have one guy who is constantly reminding me that they don't have the 'recommended' level of gold for a level 6 character.

TLDR; 2 characters die, both their equipment goes into the sea.

My group is running with 5, but generally only 4 show up. So what I've done is I just divide 'party gold' by 4, and give that out to all 5 people, in effect giving the party an extra 25% gold. This has worked pretty well, as only twice we've had all 5 people show up.

During the haunts in the Foxglove Manor, I had one person coup de grace himself (it was a universal haunt so it wasn't assigned to anyone)...

Doing the math out for him in particular to be target and fail the haunt... 25% chance it was him, he had a +3 perception, rolled a 21 to see the dagger, went over and picked it up, slammed himself for 8 damage (max), but had zero STR bonus... then failed his fort save. Dead. He was a caster, so the group distributed most of his items to Sorc... who then fell to the Burning Inferno... this one did specifically target him. He slams out the window, weather vane misses (by 1), he fails reflex and climb checks (he rolled below a 3 for each). Dead... with BOTH characters items on him.

TLDR; 2 characters die, both their equipment goes into the sea.

Normally, when I bring in new characters, they start with zero items (especially since I am already giving the party 25% more gold already). I just can't justify starting them out with whatever the recommended level of gold is on a brand new character, when their gear is NORMALLY still in the group... however in this case, it seems most of it is lost.

Then the two remaining characters just sold all of the stuff they couldn't use (no one actually could use it regardless if anyone died or not), and split the pot between them. This irritated someone coming in fresh because they feel like they're being short shafted twice (losing a character, AND no items). Which to the characters still alive, they have no idea that 2 new party members are going to join the RP wise. But then the flip side is "why would a level 6 cleric be joining an adventuring party with absolutely nothing?".

One of the alive party members is being a thorn in my side, because OOC he is agreeing that they are coming in under geared and should be given gear (then he wants me to take it away if it makes them too strong) - but then goes ahead and sells all the items, splitting the money 2 ways and reaping the benefit... just rubbing salt in the wounds of the players creating their new characters.

How would you guys handle this? These are the first deaths (there hasn't really even been a close call yet!), a person has gone down in a fight, but between the witch, inquisitor and paladin, we have plenty of heals.

As a DM, I don't want to see people upset. These are my RL friends, not just some group I put together out of the blue. But at the same time, I just don't want to hand over gear making them a stronger group (in my eyes, almost like a reward) because someone died. I don't want every fight to be a challenge, but I also don't want everything to be a complete walk in the park either. Unfortuntely for the group, the sword/board warrior was not there and he has a TON of gear (by design of the group, since he's the meat shield)... ring of protection +1, amulet natural armor +1, Breastplate +1, longsword +1, ring of force shield (the one that makes a shield), and roughly 6k gold.

Thoughts, suggestions?

The way the party did loot before was items were items, congrats if you got one, and the gold pool was split evenly. Should I instead implement a total sum value of items gained, giving more gold to players who didn't receive items?

Hi Scott,

A shame that your conversions are put on hold! My group really enjoys them so far, we're just starting to end the Skinsaw Murders module.

I was wondering if you would be able to fix the links to the rest of the files you have on your rusty dragon website?

We would really like to continue on with this story, and add new ones to the adventure(s).

Thanks for all your hardwork, really looking forward to these!

I would have tried to PM, but I could not find that feature.

My email is maaksel@gmail.com if you would be so kind as to contact me =)

Thanks!

-Mark